Thursday, December 01, 2011

UNDER THE COVERS: Austra Take on a Roy Orbison Classic


Roy Orbison -- one of our greatest songwriters. Outside of his more familiar hits like "You Got It" and "Pretty Woman," there are so many other classics like "Crying," the 1961 ballad that sounds rather orchestral thanks to lush string arrangements soaked in reverb. It's a song that hits all sorts of new emotional highs with Orbison's absolutely angelic -- and nearly operatic -- delivery.

Toronto six-piece Austra recently covered "Crying," re-imagining the song as dreamy, orchestral pop song with only stringed instruments and keyboards. It's sounds rather magical and still possesses the original's inescapable emotionalism.

Austra - "Crying" (Roy Orbison cover)


And the original for comparison...

Roy Orbison - "Crying"


Austra's cover of "Crying" is from the bonus disc from the deluxe version of their latest album, Feel It Break. The bonus disc also contains unreleased b-sides "Trip," "Pianix," "Believe Me," "Young and Gay," a cover of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock," and a remix of album track "Beat and the Pulse" by M. Shawn Crahan, better known as Clown from Slipknot (yep, the one you're thinking of).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

eeee...nope.

Quinn S. said...

It's different, but still maintains *some* of the original in there. It's kind of whimsical in a way. Honestly, no matter who covers Roy, you really can't touch his originals. I, at the very least, appreciated the effort. But hey, to each his own.